Rookies in Time
by Chewie Cookies
Summary: Just when everything was looking up, they lost. Madara had most of the bijuu sealed inside of him now, and the only way to win is to go back and fix things. The Rookie 9, Team Guy, Sai, and Gaara return to the past! My first timetravel fic. NaruHina, along with other pairings. Important note: Rookies will take new names to differentiate themselves from their past selves.


Rookies in Time

Disclaimer: I disclaim all that is used in this work of fanfiction, including, but not limited to, the Log. The Log DID bless me with this muse, however, which struck me like lightning on the night of 11/7/2013, and kept me up the entire night with the basic idea of this story. My muse, and at least one of my best friends, DEMANDED that this story be made! **MAY THE MUSE BE WITH YOU!**

**Important Author's Note concerning this fic! At some point, Naruto and company will adopt new names. I will be referring to them by these new names from that point on. I will post a cheat sheet next chapter for who is who, but for this chapter, pay attention to the names they give themselves!**

Chapter One

_We'll Try Again_

Story start

Obito Uchiha pulled his hand away from view, getting back up after the thorough defeat by Naruto Uzumaki and the rest of the Shinobi Alliance. The bijuu he had acquired over the past few years were beyond his control, and yet, he wasn't upset. In fact, he felt that a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. The burden of hatred, that is.

"I really was a fool," he said to himself softly, then turned to the Shinobi Alliance and announced, "I am Obito Uchiha, and I am a proud shinobi of Konoha!"

The entire alliance, having felt the man's change of heart first-hand through Ino's mindwalking technique, cheered, happy that they had bolstered their numbers, even if it was only by one. Obito was about to change that. "Gedo: Rinne Tensei!" he called out, performing the proper hand seals and bringing back all of the people who had died in the war on the alliance's side.

Hinata gasped upon hearing the name of the technique being used. She and the other rookies quickly went to where Neji's corpse rested. Soon enough, the hole in his chest where the enormous spear of wood impaled him healed up, and the young Hyuuga prodigy breathed once more.

"Neji-niisan!" Hinata cried out, wrapping the confused teen in a hug.

It took a moment, but Neji quickly realized what happened. "I...I'm alive!" he exclaimed, then hugged his cousin back.

As the rookies and their friends took joy in what was happening, Obito turned to Madara. "You're alone now, Madara. You can't survive against the whole world! You should give up, because we certainly won't!" the younger Uchiha shouted at his senior.

Madara frowned. However, it wasn't a frown that showed that he was upset at this turn of events. It was a face of disappointment. "Yes, Obito, you're correct. I'm most certainly alone. However, I won't be for long..." the former Uchiha clan head said menacingly, suddenly summoning a small army of wood clones, all of them using Susanoo.

Naruto grinned. "You call those reinforcements?" he jabbed, creating hundreds of shadow clones. "No matter how many of you there are, you're still alone!"

Madara shook his head. "You misunderstand my meaning of not being alone, it seems," he said condescendingly. Suddenly, great holes opened up beneath the recently-freed bijuu, and they plummeted deep underground. "If I can't be the Juubi's jinchuuriki, I'll simply be theirs."

Naruto gasped, sensing the chakra of the great beasts fading fast. "No...He's absorbing them all!" he shouted, sounding pained.

The blond jinchuuriki began calling out, both mentally and vocally. "Saiken...Your acid! I'm sure you can kill the wood style ninjutsu with your power! Kokuo, try to jump out of the hole! I believe in you! You can make it! Shukaku, you're a tanuki, right? Dig up! Choumei, you're lucky number seven! Show us some of that luck, and fly into the sky! Matatabi, you can burn all the wood, right? You're a hellcat! Son, you're a sage! Hold still enough, and you'll gain enough natural energy to mess up Madara's chakra! Isobu! Isobu! Don't give up! Flood the hole with water, and you can swim to safety!" he cried out, his heart and words going to them all. However, while these were meant to be words of encouragement, the torment Naruto felt when he sensed them quickly being absorbed caused them to sound like panicked cries of desperation. Many of the shinobi alliance, along with the hundreds of shadow clones, tried to stop Madara, but the wood clones quickly made short work of them, and Madara had taken back the recently-freed bijuu.

"No..." Naruto whispered. "I can't hear them anymore...Their screams, their cries of resistance...they're gone..."

Obito frowned, saddened by the pain he could sense Naruto was feeling. Quickly retrieving Kakashi from the Kamui dimension, Obito steadied his old friend. "I'm sorry, Kakashi...I came back to the light too late to be of much help to the alliance...Madara's won..." the scarred Uchiha said solemnly. "I can fix things, but only in another time."

Naruto rose to his feet. "What do you mean by that, Obito?" he asked, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Several people gathered around Naruto. His close friends, no, his _family,_ came close to listen. "Yamanaka-san," Obito said softly with a mischievous grin. "Send a message to the alliance. Tell them to keep Madara busy, and you, all of you, will make it so that this victory of his is meaningless. We will win, even if we have to start from scratch."

Ino nodded, quickly relaying the message. The shinobi armies, realizing that they still had a chance to win, amassed and attacked, giving Madara and his wood clones many different kinds of hell. Obito turned to Naruto, and placed his hand on his head. Suddenly, various pieces of knowledge flowed into the blond's mind. The space-time user then turned to Sakura, and said, "You're a powerful medical ninja. Please, do me a favor, and give Naruto my eyes. If you're anywhere near Tsunade's level, it shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Sakura frowned, but nodded, and used a pressure point to knock out Naruto. Before she could do the same to Obito, he stopped her. "It's okay. The last time I gave one of my eyes to somebody else, I was able to withstand the pain awake. Besides, I need to speak to Minato-sensei," he explained.

The Kage in question appeared in a flash nearby. "You said you needed something, Obito?" he asked.

Obito nodded. "I need you to give Naruto the other half of Kyuubi as quickly as possible. The technique he's going to use is very chakra-intensive, and he'll need as much as he can to bring his friends with him _and_ be capable of stopping myself and Kyuubi in the past when he reemerges," the Uchiha told his sensei.

Minato nodded, preparing a seal that would allow him to do such a thing. Obito laid down, preparing for the transplant that would save the shinobi world.

With Madara

The most powerful Uchiha of all time didn't know why, but something about the looks on the faces of the shinobi he fought worried him. The fact that they all died with looks on their faces that plainly said, "I know something you don't know," was extremely distracting.

"_It doesn't matter. They're all cannon fodder compared to me now. Even the Kyuubi brat,"_ he thought to himself. And indeed, he was right. Even Hashirama's attacks were easily dealt with at this point. _"So why do they all seem so smug as they face me in this losing battle?!"_

It was then that he felt it. It was small, compared to his chakra, but he could clearly feel the chakra of Naruto Uzumaki and Kyuubi being used for a technique. Sprouting wings from his waist with the power of the Nanabi, he took flight above the irritating shinobi in his way. He was blocked for a moment by Oonoki using his Jinton to attack on more even ground, and when Oonoki was killed, Madara almost felt nervous when the old man gave him the same defiant grin as all the other fodder had. _"No, this can't be right...Nothing anybody here can do can stop me now...So why are they all acting like they've won?"_

Then, he saw it, and knew. Naruto was surrounded by thirteen shinobi and a ninken inside of a ritual circle. He knew he was too late to send himself back in time before them, so he rushed at them, screaming a primal battle cry.

Naruto's reply upon opening his left Rinnegan eye and right Sharingan eye was, "You lose, Madara."

The resulting technique made it feel like the earth had shattered.

Seventeen years ago

Naruto, the other rookies, Sai, Gaara, and Team Guy reappeared in a wooded area, dazed, and in Naruto's case, unconscious.

"Where are we?" Tenten asked.

Activating his Byakugan and searching the area, Neji concluded, "We're in Shimo no Kuni, in the area where the battle was taking place, just...long before the battle. At least fifteen years before."

"Seventeen years," a deep voice sounded from Naruto's mouth. His eyes opened, and revealed the red of Kurama's influence. "According to the information given to the brat by Obito, we're two and a half hours early for my rampage. Naruto can take you there, but first he needs to rest. He used up all of his chakra during that technique, and some of mine. Kiba, I smell food pills on you. Put three in Naruto's mouth, and I will swallow them for him to speed up his recovery."

Kiba scoffed. "I know you're our ally now, Kyuubi, but it's still a little weird working with you," he said, putting the three pills requested into Naruto's mouth. Taking control of the proper muscles, Kurama forced Naruto's mouth to chew the pills and swallow them.

Lee got into serious mode. "What is our next course of action, Kyuubi-san?" he asked.

Kurama eyed Ino. "Bring us all into the brat's mindscape. He'll tell you once we're there. I'll make a squad of shadow clones really quick to act as a defense for our unconscious bodies," the ages-old bijuu said, creating ten clones without hand seals.

A few seconds later, all the teens (and Akamaru, who's fully grown and therefore not a teen in dog years) fell over unconscious.

Two hours and twenty-five minutes later, inside the barrier where Kushina just gave birth

Minato Namikaze was terrified. A masked man had made it past the barrier and into the birthing room, and was now holding his son at knife-point. "Step away from the jinchuuriki, or your son will die at the ripe old age of one minute old," the masked attacker threatened.

"N-now hold on a minute, just calm down, and we can talk this over," Minato stammered.

Naruto cursed silently as he waited in the hall closer to the entrance, masking his chakra as he did when he hid from the ANBU after his pranks in his childhood. He would have loved to save his younger self right now and drive Obito away from his family, but part of the plan depended on Kurama getting released again, so that Naruto could absorb him and allow _his_ Kurama to merge with the currently spiteful bijuu and, for lack of a better term, get him up to speed on what happened in the future. _"I'm so sorry, Mom, Dad. I know it will be tough, but at least this time we'll be able to be a family,"_ he thought to himself.

Shikamaru and Gaara, who Naruto was counting on to keep him in place should he give into his emotions, nodded to each other. "Everything happened the same, Naruto. You did well controlling yourself," Gaara said.

Shikamaru nodded. "It's troublesome, but now's the time to put Obito's plan in motion. Wow, it's gonna be weird differentiating the Obito of our time from the Obito of this time," the deer-herder said.

Naruto nodded. "Thanks for the support. Let's go," he said, and all three of them vanished into a portal that emerged from Naruto's right eye.

Seconds later, with Obito and Kushina

"COME OUT, KYUUBI!" Obito shouted. Kurama mindlessly emerged, a primal roar emerging from his maw.

Obito grinned behind his mask, ready to head to Konoha, intent on its destruction. "Wait..." a weak voice said from behind him. Obito turned to find Kushina, still alive, struggling to go after him.

"You Uzumaki sure are a tough folk. You just had Kyuubi ripped out of you, and you're still alive," he said with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"Damn straight we are-ttebayo!" a voice called out, as Naruto appeared atop Kurama and began absorbing him into his seal. Obito attempted to intervene, but was interrupted by several of Naruto's clones. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, but somehow, the clones were able to attack him in his alternate dimension as well!

Finally, Kurama was fully sealed within Naruto, who was panting from exertion. Obito, seeing that his opponent was weakened, went to attack, but was stopped when several shinobi appeared from the blond's right eye. "Who are you...How do you have these powers?!"

Naruto grinned. "I got them from a friend. Maybe you've heard of him? His name was Obito Uchiha," he explained, confusing Obito like nothing ever has.

Minato, who had appeared in the midst of the conversation next to Kushina, was confused by this turn of events. _"Who are these people? Are they friends, or enemies? Either way, one of them has absorbed Kyuubi, and...is that one of my seals I sense on him?"_ he wondered to himself.

A few of Naruto's friends landed next to them, and Sakura said, "Let me and Ino take a look at Kushina-sama. We're medic nins trained by Lady Tsunade. If anybody can save her, it's us."

"Naruto..." Kushina groaned, "Where's my baby?"

Minato nodded, disappearing in a flash of light and reappearing with the aforementioned baby. Baby Naruto began wailing loudly, unnerved by being taken from his bed. He was about to give him to Kushina, but Hinata stopped him. "Sakura and Ino will need Kushina-sama to stay still for their healing to take better effect, and she can't do that calming Naruto-chan down. I'll keep him where you can see him and calm him down," she explained, gently taking Naruto from Minato's arms and bringing him near where Kushina was receiving treatment. "Shhh...Calm down, it's okay. Mommy and Daddy are going to be fine. See? Mommy's getting better, and Daddy will help our friends keep the bad man away," she reassured little Naruto softly. Long before she had finished speaking, Naruto had calmed down, staring in wonder at Hinata's eyes. _"He's so cute as a baby,"_ Hinata thought to herself.

"Naruto..." Kushina whispered gently, reaching out to her baby and caressing his whiskered cheek. "I love you so much."

Soon enough, Obito had been driven to retreat, due to the talented group of shinobi attacking him. The shinobi of the future landed before the Namikaze-Uzumaki family.

"We owe you our thanks," Minato said, then added, "But I'd like an explanation, if you could give one."

The Naruto of the future nodded. "Sure thing, Dad," he said, startling Minato and Kushina, then adding, "But the past me in Mom's arms needs somewhere more comfortable to rest, and so does Mom herself. I've never actually been to your home, due to various factors in my original timeline, so if you could take us there without too much hassle, that'd be great."

Minato nodded, realizing very quickly that the young man in front of him was his son from the future, despite how little sense that made. He recognized several of the others as members of their respective clans, and while the 'shinobi' symbol on their forehead protectors confused him a bit, he decided he could trust these people. "Yeah, I can do that. I wanna figure out why and how you came back in time, for one thing," he said, then took all of them away in a flash of light.

At Minato and Kushina's house

Everybody appeared in the living room, but several of them were disoriented. "Sorry about that. I'm not used to bringing so many people with me, so it was a bit of a bumpy ride," he explained.

There were several nods, as Naruto of the future and Hinata helped Kushina and little Naruto get to a couch to relax. Mother and child rested happily after a long night, soon falling asleep. Taking various positions in the room, the Rookies of the future and Gaara left it to Naruto to explain things.

"Where to start..." Naruto mumbled, then smacked his fist into his open palm and smiled. "I saved yours and Mom's life tonight! Definitely one of the things we were hoping to do this time around-ttebayo. In my timeline, I grew up as an orphan, and since you and Mom made me Kurama's jinchuuriki, and somebody, we think Danzo, leaked my status as one, I was hated by pretty much everybody. Eventually, though, since I'm so awesome, I made really good friends, and when I saved the village from this Rinnegan user named Pain, I became the village hero-ttebayo! Unfortunately, Pain was only the fake leader of the organization we're up against, the Akatsuki, and they kept working to collect the bijuu.

"I managed to become Kurama's friend, along with the rest of the bijuu! That masked guy you saw, who's really Obito Uchiha, had Madara on his side, though, and became the Juubi's jinchuuriki after absorbing the rest of the bijuu and part of Kurama and Gyuuki into himself. Our group, along with the Shinobi Alliance, which was formed out of _all_ the major villages, fought against them to keep them from projecting an Infinite Tsukuyomi on the moon, which would steal away everybody's free will. We almost won, after I talked Obito into not being a stick in the mud anymore and joining our side, but then Madara stole the bijuu we'd just recently freed, and absorbed them into himself, becoming their jinchuuriki, and almost all powerful since he's an Edo Tensei! Obito gave me these eyes, along with the knowledge of how to use them, and we all went back in time to turn things in our favor-ttebayo!" the blond finally finished explaining.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome. What our loudmouthed friend is saying is that there's going to be a Fourth Great Shinobi War, and that the free will of humanity will be at stake, so we really need to keep our side from losing this time," he explained.

Minato nodded. "I get it, but who are Kurama and Gyuuki? I've heard of the Kurama clan, but not a person named Kurama, much less anybody named Gyuuki," he queried.

Naruto's eyes suddenly turned red, and Kurama spoke in a deep voice. "I almost forgot that we were in the past. It's not known by anybody yet, except for maybe that rapping fool in Kumo, that we bijuu were given names at our birth. I, who you know as Kyuubi, have a proper name, Kurama. Gyuuki is my brother, the Hachibi. And, for the record, sorry for killing you and Kushina in the old timeline. I'm frankly glad Naruto and I were able to subdue my past self so easily. He's now assimilated with me, and it's given Naruto and me a LOT of chakra. I'd have to say, combined, we have the same amount as the Juubi of old, and fifty percent more. It will be good to match wits with you in shogi again, Minato. As the brat forgot to mention, only half of my chakra was originally sealed within him. The other half was sealed into you, and in your last moments, you were a jinchuuriki as well. We spent a long time in the Shinigami's stomach, and the half that was with you and your other self came to an accord with each other. One of the things we'd do to pass the time was play strategy games. It was fun when you got up to my level," the era-old bijuu explained, then gave control back to Naruto.

Minato nodded. "So, Kurama is our ally now? That's good to hear. I knew you were going to do some amazing things, Naruto, but befriending all the bijuu and turning somebody who's apparently been lost in hatred for over a decade to the light...You're really something," he said, then added, "If I never got to tell you this before, I wanna say right now that I'm proud of you. I'm very sad that Obito's fallen so far, though, but you've shown that he can be saved. Now, if you could introduce me to your friends...?"

Naruto nodded, and introduced each of his friends. Upon realizing that they had their younger selves around in this era, Minato came to a decision. "We're going to have to give all of you new names. That way, you'll be able to live with your families still, and not have to worry about so much confusion," he said.

Gaara nodded. "That's a sound idea, Yondaime-sama. Seeing as this is basically a mission, it shouldn't be too much trouble to come up with new names. I will select Akaru for myself," he said.

"Chou," Chouji said.

"Shika," Shikamaru came after.

"Grrr, I can't use Ino, that's my actual name! How about Hana for me?" Ino suggested.

"The real me does not have a name yet, and since I am so attached to the name Sai, I will keep it, and in the event I find my former self, I will see to it that he is given an appropriate name," Sai explained.

"Takamaru," Sasuke said simply.

"Haruna. I always liked that name for some reason," Sakura said.

"Stone Lee!" Lee shouted with a grin, pumping his fist.

"Kunoichi. It's what I was born to be, so I might as well call myself as such!" Tenten exclaimed.

"Sora. For the sky I will now be able to traverse freely," Neji said softly.

"Daichi! And Akamaru here will be Sotoro!" Kiba shouted while his companion barked.

"I will go by Kabutomushi. Why? Because the horned beetle is one of the most powerful insects, as well as one of the most easily noticed," Shino explained.

"I will become Hitomi, even though my past self hasn't even been born yet," Hinata said with a small smile.

Naruto nodded, "And I will be Arashi. So, what's the next step, Dad?" the newly-named Arashi asked.

Minato sighed. "First, we're going to have to bring the village council together. It's going to be tough telling Hiruzen-sama that his wife is dead..." he said softly, regretting his inability to act in time to save Biwako and Taji.

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Actually, if you can secure the bodies, I can bring back everybody from our village that died tonight. It'll drain my lifespan a bit, but being an Uzumaki, I have that in spades," he explained.

The older Namikaze nodded. "Right, then, I'll go bring the bodies here, and we'll head to the council meeting afterwards," he said, feeling much better in knowing that Hiruzen won't have to grow old alone.

Later, in the council chambers

The shinobi council and their significant others looked confusedly as several members of their clans that they'd never seen before entered the room. Equally as confused were the Harunos, and Hizashi and Yukina Hyuuga, who were invited unexpectedly.

"Minato...Who are these...people?" Danzo asked, not understanding what was going on.

"If you all could wait a few minutes for a few of my agents to return, I will answer. Also, Danzo, I am Hokage, so I would appreciate it if you'd address me with a bit more respect," the blond yondaime replied.

Hiruzen shook his head. "Danzo, someday your disrespect for members of authority will come back to you in an unpleasant way," the monkey-summoner admonished.

An ANBU soon entered the room. "Hokage-sama, we've acquired the documents you requested," the soldier announced.

Minato nodded, then turned to Arashi. "Arashi, if you would please?"

Arashi nodded, and leapt at Danzo quicker than the old man could react, putting his hand on his head and drawing his soul out, along with a whole lot of information. Danzo fell over, dead, causing several of the attending shinobi to pull hidden weapons out of seemingly nowhere.

"Stand down!" Minato shouted, then explained, "Danzo has been committing treason for several years now, under our noses, and I've finally gained the opportunity to gather physical proof. Inoichi, I'll need you to go through the mind of my friend here sometime soon, as he just extracted an enormous amount of information from Danzo, and we'll need somebody the village trusts to know what all he did if we're to convince the masses of his betrayal. I'm sorry, Hiruzen, I know he was your rival, but he had it coming."

The aforementioned Sarutobi sighed. "I only wish I could have helped him before he turned to the darkness," he replied with a frown.

"You still haven't told us who these people are, Hokage-sama," Homura Mitokado said, somewhat nervous about what had just happened, barely noticing the other shinobi who entered the room as he said that.

Minato nodded. "Yes, I believe I should get to that. These are several of our children, from the future. Naruto, here, or Arashi as he calls himself now, is my son. The rest of you can likely guess who the others are, other than Tenten, Sai, and Rock Lee, if you're familiar enough with your children," he said.

The gathered shinobi, minus the time travelers, gasped at this revelation. Izumi, still heavily pregnant with Hinata, nearly fainted upon hearing this. Hiashi quickly steadied the woman, and they, along with the rest of the parents, went forward to see the people their children would grow into.

Kunoichi and Stone frowned slightly, not having parents to greet them. Sai felt a pang in his chest, though his emotional conditioning allowed him to not show that he was hurting.

Sora looked over at his two teammates, and invited them to be with his family. Likewise, Naruto invited Sai to be with him and Minato. Kushina would have been there as well, but she was still tired from the ordeal she'd been through, and she didn't want to leave baby Naruto alone anyway. As for Akaru, he stood to the side smiling mirthfully, wondering how his family would receive him when he returned home.

Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu sighed sadly, feeling left out. Biwako appeared behind them suddenly, though, and said softly, "Don't worry. If what I heard is true, we'll all have some wonderful grandchildren to spoil in a few years!" This got the old folks' smiles perked right back up.

Hiashi and Izumi smiled at their daughter. "What did we wind up naming you, dear?" Izumi asked softly.

"You named me Hinata. However, so that little Hinata in your womb can keep that name without getting confused about why she has a big sister with the same name, I'll call myself Hitomi from now on," Hitomi said, then turned to her father and explained, "Naru...I mean Arashi-kun told me to tell you that he can help you with the Elders. I know you hate the Caged Bird Seal as much as Mother and I do, and he intends to help us change the clan for the better."

Hiashi nodded. "Yes, I would greatly appreciate such help, if his plan can work. I'll be sure to speak with Arashi-san later," he said, having trouble hiding the fact that he was irked about his daughter having a crush on a boy.

Meanwhile, Sora, Kunoichi, and Stone were explaining to Hizashi and Yukina why Sora wasn't branded. "So, you died for the clan, then were brought back to life, Neji-kun?" Hizashi asked, sounding a bit miffed.

Sora shook his head. "First off, Neji is this timeline's version of me. My name is Sora Second, I died for my friend and for my cousin, not for the clan. Due to various things that have happened in the future, I'm absolutely certain you can work things out with Uncle. I am glad that my friends and I are here, because the Hyuuga Clan only started changing for the better in our timeline after several horrible events occurred and forced us to begin to unite," the formerly sealed Branch Family member explained.

After everybody got acquainted with their future children, Minato called for everybody to return to their seats. "Now, the first line of business. I will remind the people in the chamber that all that will be discussed tonight is a triple S-ranked secret. These fine young shinobi came from the future for a reason. A small group of S-ranked missing nins, the Akatsuki, waged war on the Elemental nations with the power of several of the bijuu. It was The Fourth Great Shinobi War, and all of humanity's free will was at stake. The heads of the Akatsuki, during the war, were Madara Uchiha and Obito Uchiha. Yes, both were believed to be dead, but Obito is alive, and Madara, in the other timeline, was brought back via the kinjutsu Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei.. My son, Arashi, has requested that we try to save Obito from his dark path, since he was able to do so in his original timeline, and wouldn't be here if it weren't for the younger of the two traitors," the blond hokage explained.

Fugaku placed his hand on his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Madara continues to bring shame to our clan, even after his demise," he said softly.

Takamaru turned to Minato, and bowed. "Hokage-sama, I personally request that my clan not be ostracized for the actions of these two rogue Uchiha. The Uchiha will do their part to see that these two, or just Obito since Madara's currently dead, see justice. Also, if our clan compound could be moved closer to the center of the village, I would be grateful. It would likely prevent one of our clan's greatest tragedies from occurring," he requested.

Minato smiled. Rise, Takamaru. Arashi told me what happened in the other timeline, and I will do my utmost to make sure you clan prospers this time around," he said softly.

Mikoto frowned concernedly. "What exactly happened in the timeline you come from, Sasu...Takamaru-chan?" she asked.

Takamaru's eyes shut tightly, before he opened them, revealing his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. "We became ostracized by the village, due to the Kyuubi attack and the power the Sharingan has over the bijuu. Some people believed us to be responsible, and Father ended up plotting a coup against the Hokage. The Hokage wanted to solve the matter peacefully and under the radar, but Danzo threatened Niisan, an ANBU Captain at the time, that either he slaughters the clan and gets to leave me alive, or his ROOT would kill us all. In the end, Itachi-niisan was forced to kill his heart and his clan, leaving the village as a missing nin. The official story was that Itachi went mad and slaughtered everybody, and we were seen as martyrs. The truth, though, was that Itachi was a hero, who sought out his death at my hands, so that I could become the hero who avenged our clan..."

Fugaku sputtered. "Our clan? Plot a coup? But the Uchiha Clan has been doing better than ever since Minato-sama came into office! The inconvenience of living on the outskirts of the village is going to be gone soon, what with our deal to move the clan deeper into the village! Why would we plot a coup? We're happy right now!" he declared, outraged at his other self for putting his clan and village in so much danger.

Minato nodded. "You're right. You're not plotting a coup. It wasn't for a while that your clan began plotting the coup, and you don't have the motivation to do so this time around. And everybody, before you claim that Fugaku is confusing you with his talk of moving the Uchiha deeper in the village due to it supposedly being Takamaru's idea, the fact of the matter is that Fugaku and I have been talking about that for a few months now, since Kushina doesn't want to have to walk Naruto-chan so far to see her best friend," he explained.

Inoichi grinned, and Chouza made a whipping motion with his hand. Their respective wives pinched their ears and gave a sharp tug, causing the two men to cry out suddenly.

Arashi nodded with a smile. "Don't worry. Our group won't lose this time around. We have too much to lose and too much strength to fail-ttebayo!" he exclaimed.

Hitomi, from her spot in the room, smiled warmly at Arashi with a slight blush, a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Minato, Izumi, or Hiashi. _"I'm going to have so much fun helping get both versions of those two together! I can't wait to tell Kushina-chan about this!"_ Izumi thought to herself gleefully.

Minato smiled. "This meeting is adjourned. I will be sending Akaru back to his home in Suna within the week so that he can spread the word about the threat of Akatsuki," he said with authority.

Arashi smirked, then turned inward to his mindscape and asked, _"Did you send them out?"_

Kurama nodded an affirmative within his cage, the great beast now being twice the size he originally was. "They'll all know within the week, kid," he assured his host.

Everybody prepared to head out, though Izumi and Hiashi stopped Minato on his way out. "Hokage-sama..." Izumi started softly.

Minato grinned. "Don't 'Hokage-sama' me! You're some of my best friends! Just call me Minato! What can I do for you?" he asked.

Izumi nodded. "Right. Well, Minato-sama, if you could do my family and me a favor and take Hitomi and Sora into your home while we get things settled with the elders of our clan, that would be wonderful. I really don't want to risk the two of them being sealed," the eggplant-haired woman requested.

Minato nodded, despite knowing what Izumi was up to. "Very well. They can stay with me and my family for a while," he said, then turned to Hiashi and added, "Come by my place tomorrow morning, you two, and we'll discuss the problem with your clan's elders in detail."

Hiashi nodded. "Very well. I'll trust you to make sure nothing...unfortunate happens between your son and my daughter," he said with a slight edge to his voice.

Minato nodded, gulping slightly. "Of course, Hiashi-sama!" he replied.

And so, after making sure the time travelers without families here had a place to stay for the night, Minato and Arashi headed home.

Later that night, in Arashi's room

Arashi sighed. He was having trouble sleeping. So much had happened, and it was causing thoughts of various kinds to fly around through his mind. The young jinchuuriki was interrupted from his thoughts by a couple taps on the door. Stretching out his senses to see who was on the other side, he grinned. "Come on in, Hitomi. The door's open," he called out softly, so as not to wake his family.

Hitomi entered, dressed in a nightgown she borrowed from Kushina. It was lucky that they had similar sizes, but the gown hung from her shoulders just a little bit, making her slightly uncomfortable. "Na-I mean, Arashi-kun, d-do you remember what I said, after Sora-niisan d-died?" she asked quietly.

Arashi nodded. "Yeah, I remember. You said you'd stay by my side-ttebayo. Why do you ask?" he queried.

The blunette looked down, twiddling her fingers, something she hadn't done in years. "D-do you remember w-what I said when I d-defended you from Pain?" she asked.

Arashi nodded, a smile adorning his face. "You told me you loved me. Thinking back, I'm very happy you said that to me-ttebayo," he replied softly.

Hitomi frowned slightly, clutching her hands in front of her. "Please, t-tell me...Do you love me back?" she asked, then added, "I've been so stressed out, w-wondering how you felt about me...I c-can't sleep some nights, and I get distracted during the day, wondering how you feel! I-it's tearing me up inside!"

As Hitomi was saying this, though, Arashi had gotten up from his bed and swiftly put his arms around her, suddenly silencing her. "I love you, Hinata. Or Hitomi. Whichever. I love you very much. It took me a long time to figure out how I felt, but I know now, I definitely love you-ttebayo," he said softly.

Hitomi smiled, tears coming down from her eyes. "T-thank you, Naruto-kun," she replied, her voice trembling.

Arashi nodded. "You're welcome. Now let's get you back to your room," he said, only to find that the door was stuck when he got to it. "Um...we might have a problem..." he said sheepishly.

Hitomi blushed heavily, realizing what was going on. "I-I'm sorry, Arashi-kun! I m-must've closed the d-door wrong!" she panicked.

Arashi sighed. "I really don't want to wake my parents or little-me up. I'll sleep on the floor," he said, slightly miffed that the door was acting up.

Hitomi shook her head. "N-no! Y-you need proper rest...W-we can s-share the bed, I g-guess..." she suggested.

Arashi frowned. "A-are you sure? Y-you don't have to do that," he replied.

Hitomi took a deep breath and nodded. "I don't mind, Arashi-kun. I kn-know you won't take advantage of me or anything," she said softly.

Arashi sighed, but got in the bed and gestured for her to follow. Hitomi got in hesitantly, and was soon snuggled beneath the blanket. Cozying up against her blond boyfriend in an unusually bold way, she said, "G-good night..."

Arashi nodded, feeling himself getting tired already.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door

Kushina was doing a little jig in her head. _"I love being a fuinjutsu master! Now those two will have no choice but to bond with each other tonight!"_ she exclaimed in her mind, then headed off to bed to join her husband in slumber. Konoha's Hot-blooded Habanero has struck again...

End Chapter One


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